Only Connect - bringing social media into the real world

Is it time we bought social media into reality? (Picture: Bernhard Lang/Getty Images)

How do you feel about strangers reading your messages? This isn’t an NSA-related matter but rather a movement using technology to make people put down their devices and actually speak to each other face-to-face.

Somebody App is leading the curve and it has struck a chord with Kirsten Dunst and Lena Dunham. When you send a text through this app it doesn’t go straight to the recipient but someone near them, probably a stranger. They must also be signed up to Somebody. This delivery mule reads the message out loud. If there is an emoji they may act it out as they see fit.

When film-maker and writer Miranda July created it she hoped for the possibility of more connections, saying: “I get a real high from accidental interactions with strangers. It’s weird, it does somehow make me feel better.”

One of Somebody’s London fans is Zofia Ciechowska, 25, who lives in east London and works in product innovation. She explains its draw: “The reason why this particular app is so appealing is because it breaks down the isolating barriers that we’ve created using digital tech. It makes us look people in the eye, open our mouths and interact with each other. A real facial expression will make a text message more meaningful than even the most inventive emoji sequence. By messaging a friend via a stranger, you might make another friend along the way, even if it’s only for a few minutes.”

Photographer Mary McCartney taps into this on Instagram with her hashtag someone. She takes photos of strangers and uploads them, racking up the likes and comments from followers intrigued by their stories.

If you would like more commitment, the app 20 Day Stranger allows a longer connection. Using GPS, it pairs two people who don’t know each other and allows them to see inside each other’s lives for — you guessed it — 20 days. They can share pictures, locations, the weather, moods and experiences but are not told anything like the name or age of their partner until the end, when they can choose whether to exchange contact information. Designed by professors at MIT, it has been made to counteract the way that social media risks making people self-absorbed.

Kevin Slavin, who was on the team that created it, says: “It’s really, really demanding on the human mind to properly imagine the lives of strangers around you as being just as dense and important as your own. And yet, of course they are. What will you do in order to produce that consciousness for yourself? I want this to be a tool to answer that.”

It works the other way around as well, with technology guiding non-virtual connections. There’s emoji-themed yoga (emoga, obvs), and Tinder-inspiring real-life date etiquette. Daygame is a love bootcamp where men are taught how to set themselves up on instant dates. Think Tinder without the app. The idea is to help these men strike up conversations with people they like and go for instant dates.

As well as technology broadening out your circle, it is ensuring you make the most of what you have in the real world. If you are fed up with your pals ignoring you because they are so beholden to their screens, try the DinnerTime app. The one catch is that both parties need to agree to have it on their phones. Once it’s downloaded one party has the magical power to disable functionality on the other person’s device — that means no calls, texting, Instagram or Twitter for a set period of time. The app is bossy. If wayward users so much as try to touch a button it sends a message saying: “Spend some quality time with people. This device will be available in [a set amount of minutes].”